Saturday, April 13, 2013

Cedric was a brave police pilot whose job it was to catch people who broke the law. But Cedric wasn’t an ordinary police officer – he was a S.T.A.R. policeman (Special Tactical Astronaut Ranger). It was the 24th century and STAR police officers flew spaceships around the Solar System to protect people from Prince Blacklung’s space pirates.

Cedric sat in his cockpit as his ship circled Saturn gracefully. He drank a little juice from a cylinder as he watched the centre of his computer screen. His robot engineers were repairing the ship’s engine and he was watching out for space pirates. About 10 minutes earlier Prince Blacklung’s space pirates had sliced his engines with their lasers. Cedric was in trouble and he knew it!

Prince Blacklung and his pirates were the opposite of nice. If he and his pirates found Cedric they would celebrate by destroying his ship.

Friday, April 12, 2013

crocodileA crocodile is a large reptile with strong jaws that lives in warm areas of the planet. They have webbed feet that help them to swim very quickly.Crocodiles attack animals by biting them and pulling them underwater.

koalaA koala is a special kind of mammal called a marsupial. This means it carries its babies in a pouch on its stomach. Another famous kind of marsupial is a kangaroo. Many people think a koala is a kind of bear, but actually it is not. Koalas are good at climbing tree branches.

salamanderA salamander is a brightly colored amphibian that looks like a lizard. Sometimes, when a salamander is attacked by another animal, it can drop its tail to distract the attacker! The tail will wiggle and move around and while the attacking animal is looking at the tail, or trying to eat it, the salamander will run away!

tuataraA tuatara is a small reptile, which looks like a lizard, but is actually the only example of a dinosaur still alive on our planet. Tuataras live on the land and move around only at night. One tuatara, named Henry, lives in a museum in Invercargill, New Zealand and he is 112 years old!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

The pirates
had been walking for days. They had only a little water and not much bread
left. They were tired and hungry… and they were angry at their captain.

“Why are you
leading us across these grasslands?!” they asked angrily, “Where is the
treasure you promised us?”

“Be patient
men!” called out their brave leader, “You have already fought wild reptiles,
furry mammals and large amphibians! I am sure if we walk for a little further
we will discover the famous knight’s tomb – full of gemstones and gold coins!”

The pirates
grumbled and cursed but they trusted their captain and so they didn’t disobey.
After some time they began to climb a steep mountain and saw the tomb – but
there also they could see a magic giant with two heads guarding the doors.

“What now
captain?!” they yelled, “That giant has a huge knife that it wants to cut us
with!”

“Attack my friends!”
replied the captain, “We will take this giant into captivity and sell him to
the zoo back home… attack!”

Once upon a time there was a family of beetles living in a
field. They worked hard every summer so that they wouldn’t be hungry in the
winter. Another family lived in the same field. They were a family of ants. The
ants and the beetles were good friends and sometimes they even shared their
grain.

One day, a beetle boy named Tommy was looking around for his
chocolate. He couldn’t find it anywhere – it had disappeared! He went to ask
his mother, “I can’t find my chocolate anywhere, do you know where it is?”

“That’s strange,” said his mother, “I don’t know any beetles who
would take another beetle’s chocolate.”

“But the only other family in the field is the ant family. That
means those dishonest ants must have taken it!” Tommy sobbed.

News of the missing chocolate spread throughout the beetle
family and they became very angry about it. Soon they didn’t share their grain
with the ant family and they even sometimes had fights with them. The two
families were never friendly to each other ever again and they always
distrusted each other.

It wasn’t until later that Tommy remembered he had eaten his
chocolate himself. He didn’t tell anyone.

Hi! My name is Fatima! Every day we have to go to school. Before school I usually don’t have much energy because I’m too hungry! Then I have breakfast and my full stomach wakes me up. At school I enjoy my geography lessons the most because I like to study other countries and write about them.

Recently, my teacher taught us how to make paragraphs. We learnt to leave a space at the start of the first line of every paragraph. I know how to make my space the same size every time. I use my pencil to measure it!

Sometimes I like school a lot and other times it’s not so fun. Anyway, I have lots of friends here who I really like and I know I am learning more every time I come! One thing is for sure, school is important for everyone.

There is a very naughty boy called Kevin at my school. He always
disobeys the teachers and he never does his homework. I have never seen him do
his homework. My friends and I feel unhappy when we see him because he is
always unfriendly.

One time he stole a knife from the canteen. Now we distrust him
because we know he is dishonest and dangerous.

Another time I saw him kick a puppy and stand on a beetle. He
really is unkind. When he is especially bad the teachers make him kneel in the
sunshine. Even when his knees are really sore he never learns his lesson.

Once upon a time there was a painter whose job it was to paint
the king’s children. Every day he hurried to finish one painting of each of the
king’s children. The children were always naughty and lazy. It was very hard
for the painter to get the children to sit still.

Then one day he asked his friend, a singer, to sing a song to
distract the children. This worked well and the paintings were finished on
time.

The king was very happy and said in a loud voice, “You will be a
knight from now on, Sir Painter!”

Blog Archive

About Me

I'm an English language teacher for Grade 4 students in Al Ain, UAE. I've been here for 3 years and before that I was teaching EFL in Taiwan for 9 years.
This blog is set up with reading comprehension activities for my students to complete in their own time at home. However, anyone is welcome to use and distribute any of my work as long as the original author is acknowledged.
Hope you find the activities useful!